


Appendices

by ishouldwritethatdown



Series: Long Live the Empress [2]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Bonus Content, Dishonored lore, Family History, Flavor Text, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28956132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishouldwritethatdown/pseuds/ishouldwritethatdown
Summary: A number of excerpts from texts published in the Isles concerning the history, politics, and culture of the Empire.(or, I went overboard on the details of the lore because I'm a big nerd, so I formatted my more interesting ideas into written notes like you would find lying around in the game, and collated them for your enjoyment!)
Series: Long Live the Empress [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134263
Kudos: 6





	1. The Matter of Succession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excerpt from _Dynastical History: Royal Families of the Empire_ by Timon Carlisle

It is often forgot that Vlastimil Olaskir had two sons: Yefim, who would become the first beloved ruler of the 2nd Bountiful Empire of the Isles in 1705, and Vlado, who would never rise above the status of Prince. The names of the Prince’s daughters, Daria and Kveta, were not raised in the discussion of the throne’s succession when Emperor Yefim died. And why should they be? After all, he had two strong heirs of his own line, Zolana and Daniil. Daniil in turn had three children, and by the time he died in 1751, his oldest son, Alexy, had produced one of the two daughters he would sire in his lifetime. There was no reason for anyone to suspect that Vlado’s line would become anything more than a footnote in history.

However, with the 2nd War of Succession[1], the matter of who would sit on the throne became confused. Young Prince Sobick, the heir-apparent to the Olaskir Dynasty, had been killed along with his mother Empress Larisa, and every other Olaskir in Dunwall Tower at the time. Whilst the war raged on, every Morley man, woman and child demanding that their King Lucas Burke - descendant of the Rhydderch line - be crowned Emperor, Quentin Asquith (known as the Regent Spymaster) at last unrolled the family trees. Even a Morlean Emperor would have been preferable to the son of a Serkonan noble, so Lord Mikel Garcia was disregarded as a candidate.[2]

That left Vlado’s line, which had two branches - Daria’s and Kveta’s. Though Kveta had married into a strong Tyvian family, fortune did not smile on them. The elder of her children, Gregor, was known to enter illicit relations with other men, and combined with daughter Olga’s scandalous affair with a soldier, which had burdened her with child out of wedlock, the Resnick name was nearly brought to ruin. Daria, meanwhile, had married Jacob Kaldwin of a respectable Gristol family, and talks fell upon the candidacy of the son that survived them; His Grace the Archduke of Driscol, Andre Kaldwin.

The Archduke Driscol and his sons, Courtesy-Marquess Euhorn and Lord Isadore, took positions in the Gristol Navy during the war, defending Gristol’s north-east coast from Morley rebels. After the tragic loss of the youngest Kaldwin at the Battle of Caulkenny, the Archduke retired to his estate, and when the time came for a Kaldwin to take the throne, it was Euhorn who moved into Dunwall Tower along with his maternal first cousin, Cyril Bouchard, as his Royal Protector.

Tragedy gripped the Tower in 1818 as Empress-Consort Beatrix died with the Emperor’s second child. Euhorn subsequently refused all notions of remarrying, and entrusted the entirety of the succession to his only daughter, Jessamine. Although only ascending to the throne in 1825, Empress Jessamine had already proved herself a worthy leader for over a year prior as her father’s health began to decline. However, concerns arose early in her reign when she showed no intentions of marrying and securing an heir of her own. The Crown had been through a major upheaval in living memory, and those enthusiastic for a third Succession War were few and far between, for good reason. Then, of course, came Emily.

The announcement of the Empress’ pregnancy to the public came just prior to her birthday celebration, with an already-visible bump. For weeks, periodicals and gossiping folks on every street corner speculated about the father of the baby, and when the wedding might be announced (as it had become commonly rumoured that when she made the announcement, the Empress had not been wearing a ring). However, no announcement came. Gradually, the collective relief of having an heir to the throne coming gave way to less flattering gossip. Writers and satirists at large dropped the courtesies regarding the issue of the Empress’ unmarried status, and the longer Dunwall Tower went without revealing the name of the father’s family, at the very least, the more extreme the rumours became. Soon all the Isles knew of the Empress’ alleged promiscuity and impropriety.

At last Empress Jessamine made a statement on her own behalf - heavily pregnant and by all accounts formidable in tone, she said:

> “As for the father of our child, this information will not be disclosed to the public. We were in the process of negotiating a marriage contract with the gentleman’s family when he tragically perished at sea. The family is grieving, and it would not be appropriate for us to involve the bereaved any further at this point. We humbly request your understanding in this difficult time, and ask that any further questions pertaining to this matter are put aside until a more appropriate time.” (Public address, 12 Nets 1827)3

Whether the truth or a carefully-constructed fiction, it allowed for all questions to be put aside on the basis of the Empress’ grief. It fuelled doubts for some, and quietened the tongues of a great deal more, so that by the time Emily was born a healthy baby girl, the dominant feeling in the Isles was celebration, and not suspicion. The Princess quickly won the hearts of the Empire and the identity of her father became more a piece of interesting trivia to speculate than a genuine concern; after all, she was without a doubt her mother’s daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1Famously referred to as the Morley Insurrection by Cornelius Glenham in his treatise, 'The Shape of a Throne: Morley and its Place in the Empire' published in _Gristol Nationalists Journal_ vol 2.[return to text]
> 
> 2In 1759, Princess Olga Olaskir married Lord Pedro Garcia of Ashos, Serkonos and was removed from House Olaskir. While it is standard for a women to officially leave her father's House when she marries, it was far from an amicable parting. Some accounts from the time, compiled by Rodrigo de la Nata, indicate that Emperor Alexy came just short of disowning his sister, and there was very little contact between House Olaskir and House Garcia in the aftermath. [return to text]
> 
> 3Transcribed by Francis Hunt, _Dunwall Courier_ [return to text]


	2. House Morgengaard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excerpt from 'The Gristish Gentleman’s Guide to Morley' by Harold Dracos, first published in _Journeyman Quarterly_ , Timber 1793

Any Gristish child can name the first Emperor of the Isles to be Finlay Morgengaard I, and you might be hard-pressed to find one who does not erupt into song, providing the name of every subsequent Emperor or Empress. However, what governesses do not teach our children, nor are they most likely taught themselves, that the Emperor’s name is not so. You see, in the Morley of antiquity there were no family names the likes of which you or I are known by today, but instead a ritualistic passing on of the parent’s given name to the child.[1] Therefore, rightly our first Emperor should be known as Finlay Arturson, his heirs as Valessa and Annalise Finlaydottir and Jalle Finlayson. However, as it happens, when Finlay’s fleet took control of Dunwall Tower to better fight Tyvia’s forces in Dabovka, the name that was spread about was Morgengaard - for that was the house which they had come from, their ruling seat in Morley. The House of Morgengaard still stands today, and is the object of a fascinating guided tour that is well worth seeking out if you ever find yourself in the area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1[Addendum in the 1812 reprint, by Stephen O'Lynn]: Carter’s references to Morley are more localised than indicated in the text. There is no evidence of the naming conventions described being employed in the southern region Brynmore, which favours family names passed down matrilineally.[return to text]


	3. Secrets of Dunwall Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excerpt from _Bones of Dunwall: Stories from Dùn Rivierren, the Old City_ by Elijah Flynn. Featuring maps of Dunwall Tower hastily annotated by Corvo Attano.

Every Dunwall tour guide worth his salt can tell you that the architecture of the fair city is built on top of or into the remnants of the city that came before it. The structure of Dunwall Tower predates the name Dunwall by several hundred years, confirmed to have been standing in -2,200 B.G.B. Until Morley rebels used the caverns connected to the Tower’s well to infiltrate the fortress in 1801 A.G.B., a well stood in the courtyard which was believed to be a part of the original structure. Yet there are still other remnants of the Old City in Dunwall Tower, albeit less visible than the well was. The most interesting among them is those only rumoured to exist - secret passages connecting various rooms, providing discrete exits in case of attack, and hidden rooms that one might retreat into for hours and never be happened upon. Naturally these hidden places, if they exist, are inaccessible to the public and to the common staff of the Tower. Their entrances are either closely-guarded secrets or lost knowledge entirely, given the sudden and tragic end to the Olaskir dynasty. Surely, if these passages existed and were known to the family, the slaughter would not have been so absolute, but even if they simply did not reach their hiding places and escape routes in time, the knowledge of how to access them died with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> City maps modified from generations by watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator.


	4. The Vassal State of Cebryros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Excerpt from _A Brief History of the Provincia of the Isles_ by G. L. Havannah

Having just explored the key provinces of Tyvia, it is apt to remind the reader that unlike Xingpan (known as the region of Izra which ended its War of Independence by signing a deal that vastly more benefited the state of Tyvia than itself, and essentially resigned any of its true sovereignty in doing do), the Serkonan archipelago islands of Cebryros did not make the same mistakes.

Once the seat of an intellectual body to rival the Daniila Library in Tyvia today, the high society of Cebryros is now only survived by the ballads and epics of old. Great thinkers like Aeskhrion and Talaos lent their minds to the problems of ethics, convention, and innovation, and the mathematical principles discovered by Itys are still taught in all the major universities of the Isles. How, then, did Cebryros become an oft-overlooked region of the Empire’s most southerly nation?

To answer that question, one need only look to the wars that consumed Serkonos in the late sixteenth century. The dispute, which took six years to conclude in its entirety from 1585-1591, was a matter of the route from Ashos, the mid-easterly region of Serkonos, to the colony islands of Las Puertas, known as ‘The Gates to Pandyssia’, and an incident in which Cebryros was accused of sinking Ashos’ ships coming from the continent on the way to the port in Karnaca. To prevent this from happening again, King Baltasar of Ashos resolved to take over Liozi in Cebryros, to use as his own port, and war was declared. Although Brello initially supported Ashos, a disagreement between Baltasar and Queen Veronica of Brello quickly escalated, and all three regions began to fight over the city.

In 1590, King Baltasar and Queen Veronica became engaged, following the timely death of the Queen's former king-consort. This agreement allowed them to combine their forces against Cebryros, as well as bestow on their children the largest united kingdom Serkonos had known in its long history. When it seemed sure that Liozi was to be ceded by Cebryros, Tsar Zivorad II of Tyvia offered his support to Cebryros, and successfully drove out Baltasar and Veronica’s forces. This help, however, would come with a price, in the form of Cebryros’ cooperation with Tyvia during the Wars of the Four Crowns. Cebryros was allowed to remain independent from its closest neighbours, but its liberty came on the condition that it allow the Abbey of the Everyman to establish their presence in Serkonos. Eventually, Cebryros would be united under the banner of the Olaskirs’ dynasty along with Brello and Ashos, in the Second Bountiful Empire of the Isles. The Abbey of the Everyman, in their zeal, would censor any materials deemed inappropriate for publication in the Tsar’s vassal state, and by Emperor Alexy’s coronation in 1783, the intellectual powerhouse of Cebryros was a shadow of its former self.


End file.
